Paul Anthony McDermott: Are we now blind to our own racism?

If people had laughed at an African like they did at an Englishman racially abused at work, there would have been outrage

Last week it was reported that a racially abused worker had been awarded 20,000 by the Equality Tribunal. If the story ended there, no one would have paid much attention. It was the fact that the worker was English and had been abused by Irish co-workers that propelled this news into the headlines.

The man worked for an engineering company in Dublin and alleged that colleagues called him names and frequently ganged up on him to sing Irish rebel songs. Negative reports about the performance of the English football team in the 2006 World Cup were read out in order to further humiliate the British worker.

It is further alleged that when staff at the engineering firm had to enter tanks or dangerous spaces, they would say "send the Brit in" to make the way safe. Aside from the equality aspects to this conduct, I would have thought that it